Adele's Stories

“Sit down!” The boat would not stop rocking. But he just would not stop moving. One wrong move and we’d both be fish food. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not die today!” he finally stopped. He looked at me for a long moment before sitting down. I let out a sigh of relief. “Look. I know neither of us wanted to do this, but here we are. And if you want to get to that island safely in this sad excuse for a boat, we’re gonna have to learn to work together.” He didn’t answer. His response worried me until he finally nodded his head. I sighed again.

We sat in silence. Neither of us really knew what to do now. “I suppose I’ll start rowing.” He said. I nodded.

“We can take turns.” He nodded. It was silent again. He began rowing and we started moving. For the next two hours we took turns. But our progress was slow. Too slow. I threw down the oars in frustration. “Ugh this is pointless! We’re not any closer than we were two hours ago! We’re never gonna get to the stupid island!”

He looked at me with wide eyes. “Careful. You’re rocking the boat.” I knew he was right. But it only made me angrier.

“What do you care? You were plenty happy to rock the boat earlier!” he didn’t respond to my jab. Instead he silently took the oars and began rowing again. He rowed for another hour, the both of us completely silent. By the time he stopped for a break I had cooled down. I took up the rowing and looked at him sheepishly. “I’m sorry for what I said. I was out of line. I was just frustrated at our situation, not at you. It was wrong of me to take that out on you.” I was feeling thoroughly chagrined for my earlier outburst and knew I couldn’t continue on this journey with him if I didn’t say something.

He nodded. “I forgive you.” I looked over my shoulder at him. His face looked so sincere I nearly felt like crying. When was the last time someone forgave me? When was the last time I was sorry?

“You were right about one thing though.” I turned to look at him again. He was starting at the island behind him. “It really does feel as if we haven’t moved and inch.” I paused in my rowing.

“What are we gonna do?”

“Not give up.” He looked me in the eyes. “If we give up we’ll definitely never make it. But if we keep going we may not make it but at least we’ll have tried.” My only response was to start rowing again. It wasn’t much longer till the sun began to set.

“Have we really been rowing all day?” I asked incredulous.

“Here,” he took the oars from me and gently pushed me to the other side of the boat. “I’ll keep rowing, you get some sleep.”

“But you will wake me in a few hours. So I can row while you sleep. You can’t row all night.” He didn’t answer and I was too tired to argue so I fell asleep. When I woke the sun was up and he was still rowing. “Why didn’t you wake me?” he didn’t answer again. I was starting to learn he was a man of few words. But I was also starting to like that about him.

I sat up and stretched and silently took the oars from him. He didn’t protest. “I want you to know,” he began. I turned to look over my shoulder at him. “Even if we never make it to island, I want you to know that I don’t regret agreeing to join you.” I smiled for the first time since this whole thing started.

“Me too. I think I even enjoyed it a little.” he smiled back.

I suddenly gasped. The island had gotten closer. So close a few more seconds and we’d be on the shore. Confused at my gasp he turned his head to look behind him at the island. He let out a gasp of his own. And the just like that, we had reached land.